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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2014 38 Iconic child star hirley Temple, the dimpled, curly- haired child star who sang, danced, Ssobbed and grinned her way into the hearts of Depression-era moviegoers, has died, according to publicist. She was 85. Temple, known in private life as Shirley Temple Black, died Monday night at about dies at 85 11 pm local time at her home near San Francisco. She was surrounded by family members and caregivers, publicist Cheryl Kagan said. “We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black,” a family statement said. A talented and ultra- adorable entertainer, Shirley Temple was America’s top box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, a record no other child star has come near. She beat out such grown-ups as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. In 1999, the American Film Institute rank- ing of the top 50 screen legends ranked Temple at No. 18 among the 25 actresses. She appeared in scores of movies and kept children singing “On the Good Ship Lollipop” for generations. Temple was credited with helping save 20th Century Fox from bank- ruptcy with films such as “Curly Top” and “The Littlest Rebel.” She even had a drink named after her, an appropriately sweet and innocent cocktail of ginger ale and grena- dine, topped with a maraschino cherry. Temple blossomed into a pretty young woman, but audiences lost interest, and she retired from films at 21. She raised a family This undated photo shows US child filmstar Shirley Temple. — AP/AFP photos and later became active in politics and held several diplomatic posts in Republican administrations, including ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the historic collapse In this file photo, Shirley Temple Black accepts the Screen Actors Guild Awards life of communism in 1989. achievement award at the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, in Los Angeles. “I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the lifetime were remakes of silent films, such as Santa asks for autograph achievement award. Start early,” she quipped “Captain January,” in which she recreated Among the shorts were “War Babies,” a in 2006 as she was honored by the Screen the role originally played by the silent star parody of “What Price Glory,” and “Polly Tix Actors Guild. But she also said that evening Baby Peggy Montgomery in 1924. “Poor in Washington,” with Shirley in the title that her greatest roles were as wife, mother Little Rich Girl” and “Rebecca of role. Her young life was free of the scan- and grandmother. “There’s nothing like real Sunnybrook Farm,” done a generation ear- dals that plagued so many other child love. Nothing.” Her husband of more than 50 lier by Mary Pickford, were heavily rewrit- stars - parental feuds, drug and alcohol years, Charles Black, had died just a few ten for Temple, with show biz added to addiction - but Temple at times hinted at months earlier. the plots to give her opportunities to a childhood she may have missed out on. sing. She stopped believing in Santa Claus at ‘Baby, Take a Bow’ age 6, she once said, when “Mother took They lived for many years in the San ‘Rebecca of Radio City’ me to see him in a department store and Francisco suburb of Woodside. Temple’s In its review of “Rebecca,” the show he asked for my autograph.” expert singing and tap dancing in the 1934 business publication Variety complained After her years at the top, maintaining feature “Stand Up and Cheer!” first gained that a “more fitting title would be that level of stardom proved difficult for her wide notice. The number she performed ‘Rebecca of Radio City.’” She won a special her and her producers. The proposal to A picture taken on with future Oscar winner James Dunn, “Baby Academy Award in early 1935 for her “out- have her play Dorothy in “The Wizard of December 6, 1998, in Take a Bow,” became the title of one of her standing contribution to screen entertain- Oz” didn’t pan out. (20th Century Fox Washington, shows first starring features later that year. Also in ment” in the previous year. “She is a lega- chief Darryl Zanuck refused to lend out former child movie 1934, she starred in “Little Miss Marker,” a cy of a different time in motion pictures. his greatest asset.) And “The Little star, US Shirley comedy-drama based on a story by Damon She caught the imagination of the entire Princess” in 1939 and “The Blue Bird” in Temple Black (left) Runyon that showcased her acting talent. In country in a way that no one had before,” 1940 didn’t draw big crowds, prompting greeted by US “Bright Eyes,” Temple introduced “On the actor Martin Landau said when the two President Bill Clinton Good Ship Lollipop” and did battle with a were honored at the Academy Awards in during a reception charmingly bratty Jane Withers, launching 1998. at the Withers as a major child star, too. Temple’s fans agreed. Her fans seemed White House. She was “just absolutely marvelous, interested in every last golden curl on her greatest in the world,” director Allan Dwan head: It was once guessed that she had told filmmaker-author Peter Bogdanovich in more than 50. Her mother was said to his book “Who the Devil Made It: have done her hair in pin curls for each Conversations With Legendary Film movie, with every hairstyle having exactly Directors.” “With Shirley, you’d just tell her 56 curls. On her eighth birthday - she once and she’d remember the rest of her actually was turning 9, but the studio life,” said Dwan, who directed “Heidi” and wanted her to be younger - Temple “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.” “Whatever it received more than 135,000 presents was she was supposed to do - she’d do it.... from around the world, according to “The And if one of the actors got stuck, she’d tell Films of Shirley Temple,” a 1978 book by him what his line was - she knew it better Robert Windeler. The gifts included a than he did.” baby kangaroo from Australia and a prize Temple’s mother, Gertrude, worked to Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon. keep her daughter from being spoiled by “She’s indelible in the history of fame and was a constant presence during America because she appeared at a time filming. Her daughter said years later that of great social need, and people took her her mother had been furious when a direc- to their hearts,” the late Roddy McDowall, tor once sent her off on an errand and then a fellow child star and friend, once said. got the child to cry for a scene by frighten- Although by the early 1960s, she was ing her. “She never again left me alone on a retired from the entertainment industry, set,” she said. Temple became a nationwide her interest in politics soon brought her sensation. Mothers dressed their little girls back into the spotlight. like her, and a line of dolls was launched that She made an unsuccessful bid as a This file photo shows US child film star Shirley Temple with US actor Robert Young in the 1936 are now highly sought-after collectables. Republican candidate for Congress in Hollywood film “Stowaway”. Her immense popularity prompted 1967. After Richard Nixon became presi- President Franklin D. Roosevelt to say that dent in 1969, he appointed her as a mem- “as long as our country has Shirley Temple, ber of the US delegation to the United we will be all right.” Nations General Assembly. In the 1970s, In this 1933 file photo, child actress “When the spirit of the people is lower she was US ambassador to Ghana and lat- Shirley Temple is seen in her role as than at any other time during this er US chief of protocol. She then served as “Little Miss Marker”. Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and administration of the first President Bush. Fox to let Temple go. Among her later look at the smiling face of a baby and forget A few months after she arrived in Prague films were “The Bachelor and the Bobby- his troubles,” Roosevelt said. She followed up in mid-1989, communist rule was over- Soxer,” with Cary Grant, and “That Hagen in the next few years with a string of hit thrown in Czechoslovakia as the Iron Girl,” with Ronald Reagan. Several, includ- films, most with sentimental themes and Curtain collapsed across Eastern Europe. ing the wartime drama “Since You Went musical subplots. She often played an “My main job (initially) was human Away,” were produced by David O. orphan, as in “Curly Top,” where she intro- rights, trying to keep people like future Selznick. One, “Fort Apache,” was directed duced the hit “Animal Crackers in My Soup,” President Vaclav Havel out of jail,” she said by John Ford, who had also directed her and “Stowaway,” in which she was befriend- in a 1999 Associated Press interview. “Wee Willie Winkie” years earlier. ed by Robert Young, later of “Father Knows Within months, she was accompanying In 1972, she underwent successful sur- Best” fame. Havel, the former dissident playwright, gery for breast cancer. She issued a state- A file photo taken on She teamed with the great black dancer when he came to Washington as his coun- ment urging other women to get checked June 26, 1937, shows Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in two 1935 films try’s new president. Born in Santa Monica by their doctors and vowed, “I have much US film star Shirley with Civil War themes, “The Little Colonel” to an accountant and his wife, Temple was more to accomplish before I am through.” Temple (1928-2014) and “The Littlest Rebel.” Their tap dance up little more than 3 years old when she During a 1996 interview, she said she arriving at her first the steps in “The Little Colonel” (at a time made her film debut in 1932 in the Baby loved both politics and show business. main premiere for the when interracial teamings were unheard-of Burlesks, a series of short films in which “It’s certainly two different career tracks,” film “Wee Willie in Hollywood) became a landmark in the his- tiny performers parodied grown-up she said, “both completely different but Winkie” in Hollywood. tory of film dance. Some of her pictures movies, sometimes with risque results. both very rewarding, personally.” — AP